Bob Hope Home From Hospital

Sept. 6, 2001 -- Bob Hope is out of the hospital and recovering after a week and a half of treatment for a mild case of pneumonia, a potentially deadly illness.

Hope, 98, accompanied by his wife, left Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, Calif., today, The Associated Press reported.

Dr. Lee Kagan said Hope was "doing fine and eating well. … However, it will be several more weeks before he is fully recovered from his illness."

Hope entered the hospital on Aug. 26 after having trouble breathing. A slight fever postponed an expected release on Monday.

‘Old Man’s Friend’

Every year, pneumonia, most commonly caused by the bacteria S. pneumoniae, strikes half a million Americans, killing 40,000. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and the No. 1 cause of death due to hospital-acquired infections.

In the 1800s, pneumonia was called the "old man's friend," because it sometimes ended the suffering of the old and sick.

The elderly are more likely to contract pneumonia, and more likely to die from it than the rest of the population. According to Dr. Mark Shelly at the University of Rochester, a person over 65 is two times as likely to die from pneumonia as an otherwise healthy 45-year-old.

Age is not the only factor that increases the risk of death. Pneumonia can be a life-threatening illness if a patient has heart disease or weakened immune system.

In many cases, complications during hospitalization can be just as dangerous as the initial infection. For example, a patient's intravenous site may become infected, or inactivity can lead to blood clots in the leg, which can break free and block blood flow to the lungs. Both of these possibilities can prove fatal in the sick or elderly.

Prevention Through Vaccination

The number of deaths could be cut in half through the use of a pneumonia vaccine, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

The problem is that not enough elderly people are being vaccinated. The cost of the vaccination is covered by Medicare, which means it is free for the patient. The trouble is that doctors are poorly reimbursed for giving the vaccine.

"Doctors actually lose money giving it," said Dr. Steven Mostow of the University of Colorado.

He added that the Medicare reimbursement has gone down over the years, while the price of the vaccine has gone up.

Another obstacle is that the effectiveness of the vaccine has been questioned. The older a patient is, the less of a response he or she will have to the vaccine. Mostow said the ineffectiveness can be illustrated with the flu vaccine, which has been studied more extensively than the pneumonia vaccine but is believed to have similar problems among the elderly.

People over 85 have a protection rate of 20 to 30 percent from the flu vaccine, whereas 50- to 65-year-olds have protection rates around 90 percent, he said.

Researchers have been looking for a vaccine that may be more effective in the elderly. The key might be found in the vaccine used in infants. Infants, much like the elderly, don't mount immune responses as well as healthy young people. Therefore, another vaccine known as Prevnar was developed for use in children under 2. This vaccine was designed in such a way as to give the immune system an added "boost."

Researchers at the University of Rochester, led by Dr. Mark Shelly, have begun a trial using a similar experimental version of Prevnar on the elderly. The hope is that this vaccine will do a better job of signaling the immune system of elderly people to fight off infection. ABCNEWS' Jeffrey Carpenter contributed to this report.